Lost in Time
by akuma no yami
Summary: The hero of the Fourth shinobi war felt like no hero. the world was dead and deserted. she had failed everyone. but Naruto would not about to settle for that, she would go back in time and under the name haruko she would fix everything. even if she had no idea were to start. just before the third shinobi war. time travel fic. fem naru. pairings undecided.
1. Prologue

Prologue

There was a heavy red dust that hung around and made it so that no one could see a thing, there was a metallic smell in the air and a ringing from the silence. There was no wind and the dust hid the sun. As the dust slowly started to settle the lone figure standing in the clearing could see what was around her. Bodies' lay everywhere in awkward positions, some arms and legs were bent backwards and some were missing limbs altogether. The ground was painted red with blood. The lone figure, a women in her early 20s, spun around taking everything in, every mangled body. Running from body to body she began looking for any survivors.

No one had survived the brutality of the fourth shinobi war, no one but Uzumaki Naruto. Naruto continued searching desperately trying to find anyone who may have survived. She had just finished fighting against Madara and Kaguya, her once beautiful red hair is now caked in mud and blood turning into a gross shade of muddy burgundy. Her clothes are all torn to shreds.

Naruto kept her back turned to the god tree, as it slowly died as well. A reminder of what was happening to the world. Everything was dying, it wasn't just the occupants of the seven nations that were gone, the ground itself was dying. She couldn't remember the last time she had seen a single bird. The toad summonses were all dead as well. She was the lasting living soul in the world.

Eventually her legs gave out from beneath her and she broke down crying, crying for the lost of her friends, her family and her home. She cried until she had no more tears to shed and just laid in the mud limply. She took a moment to look back on her life until she remembered a seal that she had started with Jiraiya and finished with Kurama. A seal that can take her back in time, to before the war started.

It had never been tested and there was no way to prove that it could work and even if it did there's a good chance it could kill her. But at this point there was nothing left to live for. She stood on her shaky legs and began to clear a spot on the ground. Using the still fresh blood from one of her many cuts she started to create the giant seal, slowly and painfully. She had no chakra spare to heal herself but the blood would dry and she'd have to open up the cut again to continue the seal.

Once it was done she took a step back to admire her work and check for any mistakes. Once she confirmed that there were none that she could see, she walked to the centre of the seal and started gathering what little chakra she could, even reaching out to absorb any natural chakra that was left before everything truly was dead. As the seal began to activate she felt a burning sensation through out her body, she looked down to see the seal crawling its way across her body. Before she could react the world are around her turned dark and she began to fall through what she could only assume was time. The strain on her body and chakra was enough to send her into the deep dark depths of her mind as she passed out.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

It was a summer night in Konoha, but the wind was cool. The residents have all but gone to bed. The occasional shinobi running across roof tops, handing in their mission reports before heading home themselves. The wind began to blow harder and dark clouds started to appear out of seemingly nothing. A young blond haired shinobi having a late dinner with his silver haired apprentice, ran out into the streets as the wind became harsher even lifting small charts that had been left on the street. His apprentice was just behind him searching the street trying to figure out what could change the weather so drastically, so quickly.

Just outside the village, in front of the north gates the sky split in half. Revealing red angry clouds and rain started to pour from the blood-covered sky for a solid half an hour as the shinobi still awake tried to secure anything loose and get any civilians still out to safety. In the centre of the crack a bright golden light with red-orange flickers streamed across the whole sky calming everything instantly. The wind stoped blowing harshly and the rain stoped.

The shinobi running around the village stoped and stared in awe at the sight of the golden light, it shimmered in waves and moved fluidly rising and falling gently as if it had a life of its own. The young blonde shinobi headed to the north gate with his apprentice still hot on his heels. As they reached the gate the gold light shrank and condensed into what looked like a girl with long flowing hair. The light still enveloped her body so it was hard to make out any distinguishing features. They stared up at her shocked and awed expressions on their faces, even the little apprentice who was usually so good at concealing his emotions. The crack that reached across the sky slowly closed and the gold covered girl began to fall from the ground, to fast for anyone present to react.

The girl's small body hit the ground and a giant crater marked the land. Just after she impacted with the ground anbu and the third Hokage Himself appeared by the two shinobi's side. They all peered over the side and what they saw still surprised them. It was a small girl, but that much they had figured out, with long red hair and she was covered in cuts, blood painting the better part of her body. What surprised them though was how young she was and the giant seal that stretched across her limbs and her torso.

In the crater the young girl cracked her eyes slightly and stared straight into the eyes of a man she thought she would never see again, her grandfather figure. A lone tear fell from her eye as she lifted her tired arm up trying to reach out to one of her most precious people before darkness claimed her once more and her hand fell.

The on lookers didn't know what to make of the strange girls actions. Turning to one of the anbu the Hokage ordered. "Heal her enough to mover her without killing. Then take her to T&I. Have Inochi look through her mind and report any finding straight to me."


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Inochi stared down at the young girl, who was currently in the cube waiting for him to invade her mind. Every fibre in his body was against going into a seven year olds mind, doubly so because she hasn't given any consent. Taking a deep breath he placed his hand on her forehead and activated the justu.

The world started to twist and turn until he landed in what looked like Konoha but nothing like Konoha at the same time. Inochi spun so he could take it all in. there were certain features that made it obvious that it was in fact Konoha, such as the hokage monument although there were a couple extra faces on the wall that he didn't quite know what to think of and then there was the hokage building itself. Both of these looked like a bulldozer was in the process of demolishing it. But that could be said for most of the village.

There were no bodies to speak of but it was very easy to tell that a war of some form had taken place here. He walked through the village looking for the place she stored her memories. He was honestly quite surprised by the level of detail that had gone into the village, the couple building he did recognise weren't in the place he remembered but there were no fuzzy streets that she was unfamiliar with. This girl whoever she is knew this version of Konoha better then probably he knew of his Konoha.

Eventually he found his way to the cemetery. Again it was bigger then he remembered and there were names he recognised but knew where alive and there were names that seemed familiar but couldn't recall knowing anyone by them. The tombstones had a shine to them that the rest of the village didn't and he guessed that this is where she stores all her memories. Inochi walked up to the great memorial stone of the will of fire, where the kages were buried and remembered. He placed his hand on the stone flame and the world once again twisted before placing him in Konoha again but one he recognised. One full of life and the buildings all intact.

A small red haired girl, which Inochi can only assume is the girl whose mind he was invading, ran down the street paint can in hand and laughing as two jonin chased her down. "Come back here demon!"

She just kept running and laughing even as onlookers started whispering about the demon brat and the Kyuubi girl.

The world went out of focus and Inochi was met with the sight of the young girl huddled in a corner trying to protect herself from her attackers. "Die demon scum!" One man kicked her in the gut and his friend got her across the temple. "My name is Naruto!" the red headed girl now named Naruto all but screamed. This only ended up making her attackers angrier. "Demon scum like you don't deserve a name." "This is pay back for killing our family." This went on for a while and it didn't take long before Naruto slumped in the corner unconscious and bleeding. Once she had fainted the men snarled and walked away obviously disappointed that their prey and passed out so easily.

Inochi was furious he was having a hard time placing who this girl was and her relation to Konoha but no child should have to be put though this kind of torture. The world changed again to what looked like the academy. Naruto was standing at the front of the classroom next to the teacher while he introduced her to the class. She had her head bowed and her hands were clasped together as though she was nervous. For some reason seeing her nervous didn't look quite right to Inochi, she just didn't seem like the kind of girl to get nervous and two seconds later she proved him right. Naruto stood forward, hands by her side and a determined look in her eyes. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki and I'm going to be Hokage one day Dattebayo." The sudden out burst from the red haired girl shocked everyone but soon one of the kids shouted at her from across the room "How can a little girl like you ever become hokage?" the rest of the class burst into laughter and Naruto's face turned the same shade as her hair.

Naruto sat on the roof next to a boy who looked to be an Uchiha and a girl with pink hair. Opposite them looked like a grown up version of the young Hatake boy that he has seen run around the village with Minato. " So lets get started with introductions shall we, likes dislikes and dreams for the future…"

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki Dattebayo. I like cup ramen and what I like even more is the ramen I eat with Iruka at Ichiraku's. I hate the three minutes I have to wait for ramen to cook. My hobbies consist of tasting different types of ramen and comparing them. My dream is to be the greatest hokage ever. My dream is to become the greatest Hokage, that way the whole village will stop disrespecting me and treat me like I'm somebody, somebody important…"

"I will bring Sasuke back for sure. _This_ is a promise of a lifetime!..."

"Sasuke, I always knew you were alone. In the beginning I was glad because I thought you were like me – I wanted to talk to you! But you… didn't speak. You always had everyone watching you. You could do everything and we were too different. So I decided that you would become my rival. I didn't want to lose because I was called a loser all the time. Even when we became Team 7, I still thought this way. I always tried to lie but… but the truth is… I always wanted to be like you. I aspired to be like you. Because of that… I was glad that you wanted to fight me…"

"It's almost unbearable, isn't it… the pain of being all alone. I know that feeling, I've been there, in that dark and lonely place, but now there are others, other people who mean a lot to me. I care more about them than I do myself, and I won't let anyone hurt them. That's why I'll never give up, I will stop you, even if I have to kill you! They saved me from myself, they rescued me from my loneliness, they were the first to accept me as who I am. They're my friends…"

"I will break that curse. If there is any such thing as peace, I will seize it. I won't give up dattebayo!..."

"Quit it with your stupid reasoning! I meant to say that I'll stand any pain for my friends, Im not gonna give up on them! It might just be me being selfish, but… not having my friends here… is the most painful thing for me! Period!"

"Just give up… on trying to make me giving up"

Inochi watched Naruto's memories flash across his eyes and finally came to the conclusion that she was from some kind of future although he didn't understand it at all. Soon he was back in her mindscape and the only feeling he had for the girl were admiration. She had grown up an orphan and hated by the village for containing the Kyuubi. Then she becoming a shinobi and overcame everyone's expectations of her. She stopped the sand kid from losing control and rampaging across the village as the ichibi. She defeated pain and even convinced him to help the village. She befriended the Kyuubi and fought the fourth shinobi war on the front line with him by her side, right up until the day he was ripped from her and she survived that. She was the only jinchuriki he had ever heard of actually surviving the extraction process. She watched her friends die and she still had the will to continue on and push forward to the point that she would travel back in time to try and fix everything. She really was something else.

"Who are you?"

Inochi spun around quickly to see a red haired women in her twenty's. Inochi instantly recognised her as the grown up Naruto from her memories. The way she held herself was that of an experience shinobi. Her bright cerulean blue eyes could peer right into your soul. "Inochi" was the simple response he gave to her question. Her eyes squinted at him. He knew it wasn't the answer she was looking for but it was time for him to leave. He felt as though he had intruded in her mind enough. So he released the justu before she could say anything more.

Coming back to the real world, he turned to his assistant "all of her memories are to be sealed and sent straight to the hokage. no one but he is allowed to read this scroll. Her memories are now being marked as an s rank secret. Have her transported to the hospital to get the proper treatment she deserves.


End file.
